Who's the most ill-fated band of all time?

[trashcanman]

Yup. Forty years after their debut, not a single original member is left breathing. Lynyrd Skynyrd lost a lot of their band in a plane crash and plenty of other bands have disbanded after members died from overdoses, accidents, and diseases, but has an entire band ever been wiped out this way before? We lost Tommy Ramone last week, making him the last of the original four and third member to die of cancer. 75% of a band wiped out from cancer with an overdose for good measure. Was it their rehearsal space or what? Every member of Motley Crue still walks among us after all of their car crashes, overdoses, and diseases so why the Ramones?

The really sad thing is that they never really shared in the success they generated from the punk scene they helped found and the sound they pioneered that's still selling albums today. They busted ass and went through countless trials and tribulations only to have mainstream success pass them by decade after decade and after they retired from being one of the most hard-working touring acts in the industry, they just dropped like flies. Joey, Dee-Dee, and Johnny all died within a few years of each other n the early 00's, but Tommy held on for over a decade longer before becoming the last original member to succumb.

Rest in peace, boys.

[The Curmudgeon]

Yeah I only heard about this when I got home from the festival. We were just bitching about the amount of clueless 13 year olds walking around in Ramones t-shirts as well, that their legacy now seems to be being used as some fashion label or some shit.

A real shame. I didn't know they all died under such shitty circumstances either. So sad.

[trashcanman]

Joey and Johnny hadn't spoken to each other for a decade or two when Joey died and Johnny wouldn't even go see him on his deathbed. So even while they were alive and together, they spent a lot of time being miserable. It was actually part of their charm in the early years that they would fight like cats and dogs onstage, but after awhile it became kind of sad when they didn't even care enough to speak to each other at all.

[The Curmudgeon]

Amazing how a group of guys can tour (and change) the world like that, record amazing albums and then.. to not even visit each other on their deathbeds? So fucking sad.

Anyway, thought I'd share this nice article from the lead singer of under-rated UK band the Cribs, on how the Ramones changed his life.

www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/the-cribs-gary-jarman-why-the-ramones-sucked-me-in-like-no-other-band

[trashcanman]

Well, it was actually Dee Dee who yelled 1,2,3,4! but it's an easy mistake to make since the drummer does it in every other band ever. Great article anyways, and true for a shit ton of people.